History Film / CatsEye

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: Johnny gets to [[PayEvilUntoEvil repay]] Cressner for his cruelty by forcing him at gunpoint to undergo the same ordeal: moving about the five-inch ledge. Needless to say, Cressner doesn't share Johnny's luck.]]

* ''General'' -- The cat jumps out of the train when it reaches Wilmington, North Carolina. It discovers the residence of Amanda (Barrymore), the girl who has been telling the cat to help her earlier in the film. She names the cat "General" and decides to keep it as a pet. Amanda's mother is suspicious of General after having been told by her own mother that cats are rumored to steal children's' breath. She becomes so paranoid of General that she resorts to putting him in an animal shelter and scheduling him to be put down. Without General to protect her, Amanda ends up being endangered by the threat she has been warning General about throughout the film: a miniature troll living in her bedroom wall that has been trying to steal her breath.

* AdaptationSpeciesChange: In the short story ''Quitters Inc'' the animal they electrocute in the beginning is a rabbit. Well here it's the cat that goes through the painful demonstration.
* AdaptedOut: The short story ''Quitters Inc'' has Dick actually giving the company's card to another unhappy smoker some time after his own ordeal, but the film apparently thought that would be too much after all he was forced to endure. In the print version of ''The Ledge'' Cressner mentions that he'd offered various debtors of his the opportunity to risk the ledge before in exchange for their slates being wiped clean and only one had the courage to actually make the attempt but gave up after a few minutes.
* AdultsAreUseless: Amanda's parents in the final story, who are oblivious to the troll's existence, while the mother tries to get rid of General in her house. They only believe her ''after'' the troll's remains are spotted by them.
* AffablyEvil: Junk shows signs of genuinely invested in curing smokers (or at least interested in the final, successful results), despite his status as TheBrute and tells Dick that he doesn't think the amount of weight he gained was too bad when they're saying goodbye to him.

* TheBet: In "The Ledge" segment, a casino owner bets his wife's lover that he cannot walk around the five inch ledge that runs around the 30th floor of the building.

* TheDragon: Albert, Cressner's chauffeur, who gives orders to Ducky to follow and abduct Norris, plants drugs in Norris's car and is [[spoiler: implied to be the one who killed Mrs. Cressner]].

* ElectricTorture: In "Quitters, Inc.", the punishment for a first slip is a loved one being placed barefoot in a room with mesh floor that is electrified enough to give them a nasty shock but not to seriously injure them. The quitter is forced to watch them dance about in agony.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Cressner betting with two acquaintances over General's survival crossing the street (and expressing glee at General making it ''despite'' that it caused a four car pile-up) shows how unscrupulous his gambling tendency is.

* EvilAllAlong: At the very end, General creeps up on Amanda; the music suggests that he's evil all this time. [[spoiler:Instead he gives her a kiss and cuddles into her arms, providing a rare heartwarming ending from a Stephen King story.]]

* EvilIsPetty: Cressner does not take kindly to his wife's relationship with Johnny Norris. As a prize for winning the "bet", however, he offers his wife. [[spoiler:He never said he'd give Norris ''all'' of his wife, though...]]
* ExactWords: Cressner prides himself on never welshing on a bet. He promises Norris that if he wins, Norris will have his car cleaned of drugs, a bag of cash, and Cressner's wife. He delivers all three, [[spoiler:but what Norris receives is the wife's head]].

** Cressner and his men might sound welcoming to Norris, and reasonable in the deal offered, while also getting along well with each other, but it doesn't change the fact that their forcing a man to go out onto a ledge to a near-certain death and gleefully keep trying to trip him up. And that's not even considering the car crash Cressner causes by coaxing the General across the road, [[spoiler:Or throwing his wife's head at Norris after he survives the ledge and specifically wanting to make a show of it.]]

* FluffyTheTerrible: In "The Ledge", a brutish goon of Mr. Cressner is called "Ducky".

* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: The basic premise of ''Quitters Inc''. For each of the first three times they catch a client smoking (nine times in the book) they inflict some horrible punishment on a member of the clients family. [[spoiler: Dick's wife is subjected to electrical shocks after he ends up smoking a cigarette]]. and while he's in the waiting room, there's an anguished man waiting there whose wife is let out after having apparently been raped over his third infraction (based on how he wasn't ForcedToWatch, as was the case with the electric shocks, and how her clothes looked a little torn).

** Cressner also does his fair share of this, forcing Johnny to move around the 30th floor on a 5 inch ledge, "keeping him on his feet" with an assortment of horns and fire hose, [[spoiler: and rewarded Johnny for his troubles with Mrs. Cressner's ''decapitated head''.]]
* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: Johnny gets to [[PayEvilUntoEvil repay]] Cressner for his cruelty by forcing him at gunpoint to undergo the same ordeal: moving about the five inch ledge. Needless to say, Cressner doesn't share Johnny's luck.]]

* TheMasquerade: In the "General" segment, the parents discover that the troll is real when they discover his remains. They choose to keep the incident to themselves and ask Amanda not to tell anyone at school, knowing full well that [[CassandraTruth no one would believe them]].

--> '''Donatti''':You'd better listen to the big picture, Mr Morrison.

* NeverendingTerror: The segment featuring "Quitters, Inc.", an anti-smoking group ''run by TheMafia'' from which, once you become a member of, can ''never'' leave. They will watch you '''forever''', you will need to follow their instructions on clean living to the letter, and if you ever so much as ''think'' of disobeying an order, they will torture your family, [[ForcedToWatch force you to watch]], and they will charge you for the torture's implements (like [[ElectricTorture electricity]]) on their monthly membership bill. [[spoiler:Or start dismembering them bit-by-bit, starting with the fingers.]] And if you're crazy and/or stupid enough to continue smoking after a few demonstrations, well... [[DeadlyEuphemism they "give up" on you]].

* ThePrecariousLedge: The second segment, "The Ledge", is built around this trope. A man is kidnapped by his lover's powerful and jealous husband for planning to run away with his wife. The husband makes the protagonist an offer: If he can navigate the minuscule ledge outside his top floor penthouse all the way around the building, he will divorce his wife, if not, he will frame the man for drug charges. [[spoiler:Never said anything about his wife being alive though.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[{{Cameo}} Christine]] will run over humans, but will brake for cats.

* ProperlyParanoid: Though only Amanda truly believes that the troll [[spoiler:framed General for killing the parakeet]], her father finds it suspicious that General somehow got such a large slash mark, while the mother, who is conversely and plainly TheParanoiac towards cats, [[HenpeckedHusband dismisses him when he brings it up]].

* CatsAreMean: Inverted. Amanda's mother distrusts General because of the old wife's tale that cats steal children's breaths, but General turns out to be one of the most straightforwardly courageous and heroic kitty-cats in fiction. [[spoiler:Especially at the end, when he [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude uses a record player]] to throw the troll into the fan.]]

* AdultsAreUseless: Amanda's parents in the final story, who are oblivious to the troll's existence, while the mother tries to get rid of General in her house.

** One notable straight example is [[spoiler:Cressner's]] fall from the high rise; right before he hits the pavement, the scene cuts to a shot of General watching underneath a nearby car.

** After Johnny finished his task in "The Ledge", Albert confirms he'll hold up his end of the deal. Johnny's car has been cleaned of any drugs, he is being presented with a bag of money, and he even gets Albert's wife... [[spoiler:which he confirms by kicking the bag, causing ''[[ExactWords her head]]'' to spill out onto the floor]].

* NeverendingTerror: The segment featuring "Quitters, Inc.", an anti-smoking group ''run by TheMafia'' from which, once you become a member of, can ''never'' leave. They will watch you '''forever''', you will need to follow their instructions on clean living to the letter, and if you ever so much as ''think'' of disobeying an order, they will torture your family, [[ForcedToWatch force you to watch]], and they will charge you for the torture's implements (like [[ElectricTorture electricity]]) on their monthly membership bill. Or start dismembering them bit-by-bit, starting with the fingers. And if you're crazy and/or stupid enough to continue smoking after a few demonstrations, well... [[DeadlyEuphemism they "give up" on you]].

* WhamShot: One of the punishments of Quitter's Inc. is cutting a finger off of a loved one of the smoker. At the end of the segment Morrison is having drinks with some friends, and notices that his friend's wife is missing her little finger...

** As Johnny is about to complete his journey around the apartment, General makes his way back into the penthouse, watching as Cressner tells his bodyguard Albert to "[p]ut it in the shopping bag", which Albert confirms contain's Johnny's money. We then cut to see General's perspective, [[spoiler:where we see Albert put a cooler next to the bag before opening it]].